Mahesh Pandit – Biography

Shri Mahesh Pandit participated in the Chira-dadhi Mahotsava ("the festival of chipped rice and yogurt") in Panihati, after which he followed Nityananda Prabhu to Saptagram. (In the image: Panihati Festival).

Mahesh Pandit was one of the Dvadasha-gopala, or twelve cowherd boys. His home (Shripat) was first situated in Masipur across the river from Jirat on the eastern bank of the Ganges. When Masipur fell into the river, the Shripat was moved to Beledanga near Sukhasagar. Here too, the banks of the Ganges fell into the river causing the destruction of the village. Once again the Shripat was moved, this time to its present location in Pal Para near Chakdaha. This last move took place in the Bengali year 1334, or 1927 A.D. Pal Para is situated within the Panchnagar administrative block. Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur mentions in his commentary to Chaitanya Charitamrita 1.10.32 that this final resting place for Mahesh Pandit's Sripat is in Kanghal Puli.

Mahesh Pandit is also considered to be a branch of both Nityananda and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Some people say that he was the youngest brother of Jagadish Pandit , whose Shripat is in nearby Jashra. According to this opinion, there were three brothers in the family, Jagadish, Hiranya and Mahesh.

Mahesh Pandit's Shripat is a small construction in the style of an ordinary residential building. It houses Gaura-Nityananda Deities, as well as Shri Gopinath Madanamohana, Radha-Govinda and a Shalagram Shila. In front of the Temple building is a memorial to Mahesh Pandit, his pushpa-samadhi.

Shri Mahesh Pandit participated in the Chira-dadhi Mahotsava ("the festival of chipped rice and yogurt") in Panihati, after which he followed Nityananda Prabhu to Saptagram. He was present in Khardaha when Narottam Das Thakur came there to pay a visit (Bhakti-ratnakara 8.220). Mahesh Pandit, like all of Nityananda Prabhu's associates, resembled him in being extremely magnanimous and devoted to the salvation of all the fallen living beings. In his ecstasies of devotional love, he would dance madly.

Mahesh Pandit was a magnanimous cowherd boy. In his love for Krishna, he would dance to the sound of kettledrums like a madman. (Chaitanya Charitamrita 1.11.32)

His name is also mentioned in Chaitanya Bhagavata; Vrindavan Das Thakur calls him a great soul, paramamahanta. (Chaitanya Bhagavata 3.6)

His disappearance day is celebrated on the thirteenth day of the dark moon (Krishna trayodashi in Paush).